These days we hear it being shouted from the rooftops – if you are in business, you must engage in social media marketing. Few organizations worth their salt have considered and subsequently dismissed social media as a new aid for marketing and as the spectrum continues to improve we are seeing reports and software solutions designed to convince us that we are on the right track.
During the tail end of last year, analysts Altimeter Group revealed a report that ranked the top 100 global brands in terms of both their financial success and their related levels of engagement across a variety of social media channels. We are talking about some heavyweight companies here – Toyota, Samsung, Motorola, IBM, Amazon, eBay, Disney and so on.
The report found a direct correlation between levels of engagement and financial success. The organization maintains that its report, which you can access here, will give any business a good idea how best to approach its social marketing from this direction.
One of the main findings suggests that a broader and deeper level of engagement is important, rather than a tendency to spread corporate reserves and resources too thinly to try and reach the appropriate audiences. It was also concluded that each social media channel provides a different dimension of engagement and should be approached independently.
You might think that an approach should be rather different for a smaller organization and that it is all very well for the top 100 global brands to claim success as their name recognition is already high. If so, then a start up software package developed by developer Social Agency out of Austin, TX may be worth investigation. The company has come up with a package called Spredfast, which helps companies to manage their social media efforts. The clever software is able to analyze how people interact through a variety of social media platforms and how they respond to blogs hosted within different blogging platforms. Those comments, updates, retweets and clicks are all quantified.
Free versions are available and paid versions suitable for companies with multiple platforms and users. Spredfast allows content planning and dissemination options and an organization can use the feedback generated to modify a particular marketing plan accordingly.
For those who are still unsure about the way forward, Spredfast plans to launch a product pulling on the experience of organizations across different industry classifications. Their new interface will pose a variety of questions and suggest alternatives based on the specific responses.
Convinced about your social media approach yet?
Adam Toren
I am very new to this.. just trying to figure out if Tweeting is worth my time. I see the reports but have no idea how much of my day should be spent on tweeting and actually have no idea. Where do I go to try to get a non-biased education for what it is that will help me make the most of my time?
Khris –
One of the main advantages of Twitter / other social networking platforms is the ability to link directly to your customers, real-time, all the time. Businesses that I have worked with have been able to significaty improve customer service / interaction, not to mention get a better feel for the changing dynamics of the markets in which they compete. It is the collaboration and information exchange that makes these tools valuable for business – instead of asking your employees to do secondary research about emerging trends that may affect your business, chances are someone is doing it for you on Twitter.
Twitter and most forms of social networking are free. Only thing you lose is a couple of hours of your time – but if you are smart with your time you should be able to squeeze in what you need for social networking.
Great article!
“… rather than a tendency to spread corporate reserves and resources too thinly to try and reach the appropriate audiences.”
This is such an important quote. Find your target market before you start spending money and resources. This reminds me of David McClure’s (@davemcclure) presentation on finding a target market.
Omar
@omarjead
Of course it does, without social media most online entrepreneurs would still be stuck with marketing and promotion. Social media proves a lot, doesn’t it? There is evidence and examples everywhere to be seen, even on here, I guess??
I think social media for start up companies should be more than just a part of their marketing campaign but should be the main component. Most new businesses rely largely on word of mouth. Today, when people have a good product or service this “digital word of mouth” could be spread over much larger networks of people than ever before. Small businesses with great products finally have an opportunity to have their voice spread with little to know budget. Ideally, if you are good at what you do people will talk about it.